Spinal cord injury can lead to uncontrolled muscle spasms. Spasticity can also occur as a result of stroke, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis. Peripheral nerve injury can cause pain, such as neuroma pain.
Various nerve blocking techniques have been proposed or tried to treat spasms, spacticity, and pain. They have met with varying degree of success. Problems have been encountered, such as damage and destruction to the nerve, and the inability to achieve a differentiation of nerve blocking effects among large and small nerve fibers in a whole nerve.